Too much

3.0.00

Brief article on not being brief

A little secret article, that I use as an introduction to post the rest of the essays on a communication platform that usually sports much more conscise, "in the moment", spontaneous contributions. You won't find a direct link for here, you will get here using "Back" arrow from the following article.

Everyone contributes. Everyone contributes the most/best when aligned with their nature. When they find a way to employ their peculiarity, follow their daimon - nowadays called talent. Perhaps I could succeed trying hard to be readable, accessible, compliant with the popular habits. But being brief is just not my nature - headlines and breaking news is not what I have to offer. 😊

Totalitarian systems often suppress communication. No one can speak, but significant part of the population is quite attentive. Democracy reversed the order – everyone speaks, no one hears anything. In the battle for attention, one can try exactly that – get an audience through the proven means: being brief, entertaining, concise, point-hitting, inspiring speaker. ... or just not fight the same way. Offer something annoyingly different.

The most common response to any of my writings is usually: "Oh, that’s too long." 😊 I keep swallowing bitter remarks like "if you really mean it that you are interested in me, perhaps now and then you might listen to what I actually have to say". Yes, reading others hurts! It’s like conversation that is not a fight for speaking time, where you can’t interrupt them in the middle of the sentence. Where they can finish their thought. Express it in the most precise way they can conceive. By nature of written text, you’re forced to read (listen) till the end of their message. Ouch! And by nature of written text, no one is standing there to receive your instant reaction. Ouch! Writing is like a heart circle. Those who experienced its magic know well. Most of my friends read news, essays, analysis, commentaries and goddess-forbid – even books! Rarely I hear "too long" in that context. There’s limited information value in the instant blurts of yay!s and yuck!s (ridiculously over-valued idols of "in the moment", "here and now", "unprocessed", "spontaneous", "no over-thinking"), as much as in sticky-note beauty, or statements that anxiously confirm allegiance to certain social group and its ethos. "Yes. Okay."

This may sound harsh, but the above-said suggests one very simple reason why people do not want to hear or read long sharings ... They are just not interested in other people. That's ok, for practical reasons - we have limited mental and emotional capacity and so we do filter. We navigate the world of objects that are useful or to be avoided. Humans included. Brief digestible data facilitates approaching or distancing. It sounds biological - an evolved functionality of living organisms optimizing their utility functions. Though there's also another dimension to the calculating machines - office robots, eating robots, relationship robots, sex robots, friendship robots - right? So there's time to be efficient and time to be ... Deep? Comprehensive? Wholesome? Complete? Genuine? When was the last time your friends saw you that way?

Opinions induce counter-arguments. They hold us within dynamics of battleground. Simple statements are easy to agree with or dismiss. To support or stand against. Though the perspectives are always born within the context of life story. Hundreds of random past moments that we had to endure and experience may have influence how we live through the current one, what kind of meaning, charge or flavor it has. These perspectives carry personal background, multitude of connections, internal reasonings – that can be shared and exchanged. A message (point, statement) of each movie could be summed up in one sentence – and as easily rejected. Seeing The Message building up within a story, through emotional connection with multiple characters, through insight into motivations of people on the various sides of a conflict – The Message gains in complexity, robustness and credibility. The experience of the whole story becomes The Message. It’s not only hearing people’s theories, but also making sense of what brought them there. That’s why we still have books and movies along the matter-of-fact news.

As a Radical Faerie, I really like to rediscover ancient two-spirit role of mediators, standing between genders, between human and supernatural world, between "sides". The role of preservers of wisdom and myths, storytellers, masters of ritual ceremonies. The tribal societies could have been passing-on useful facts of life and survival in "simple is beautiful" way ... but they didn’t. Why did they bother enacting complex rituals - involving masks, role-play, decoration, dance, storytelling? Because in that format one could feel The Message! One could experience it, get in touch with it sensually and even associate it with beauty. Because feasts are easier to accept and remember than mere facts. Somehow I feel, that society I live in has dissected art and knowledge into separate categories and professions. Likewise - learning and storytelling, or facts and emotions. Ironically... our minimalism-obsessed society suffers of complex problems caused by simplification ... those brief up-to-the-point news/posts/messages do not leave us better informed, just more divided into template target groups ... our fact-based mature society gets overridden by emotion-based politics... experts/artists and laics distrust each other more and more. Good job.

Is the storytelling "too much drama" that only elders can afford? Or is it a capability to cultivate from early age? Self-rediscovering within stories, that repeat and eventually some small bits of them vary? Take the ingredients: repetition, variation, deconstruction, hyper-reality... does it sound familiar?

Give it a try.
Be odd.
Tell a story.
Be extensive.
Write a letter.
😊